A very frequent issue faced during extracorporeal blood treatment (e.g., haemodialysis) is the occurrence of hypothermia episodes due to the level of fluid exchange and/or cool fluids coming into contact with the bodily fluids of a patient. Thus, many systems for extracorporeal blood treatment comprise an integrated fluid warmer used to warm up fluids before they are used for haemodialysis, thereby helping the patient to continuously maintain a stable body temperature.
Such fluid warmers usually have an interface with a disposable container (e.g., a bag) of fluid, where heat is transferred from the fluid warmer to the fluid flowing in the disposable container. To ensure adequate heat transfer, it is necessary that the contact interface between the fluid warmer and the disposable container has a large surface area and the disposable container lies flush against the surface of the fluid warmer. Hence, proper insertion/attachment of the disposable container into/to the fluid warmer is paramount to ensuring a good interface and thus efficient heat transfer between fluid warmer and fluid container.
However, during the hectic daily clinical routine, it easily happens that disposable containers are attached to a fluid warmer in a wrong way. Especially when fluid bags instead of hard-shelled fluid containers are used to contain the fluid to be warmed, folding of an incorrectly attached fluid bag can obstruct fluid flow through the fluid bag. Furthermore, the occlusion of inlet and outlet tubes connecting the fluid bag to the heamodialysis machine can disrupt fluid flow or can cause potentially dangerous air bubbles to remain in the tubes. Hence, proper attachment of the fluid bag to the fluid warmer is essential to protect a patient from hypothermia and/or air bubbles and thus to ensure patient safety during extracorporeal blood treatment. In contrast to hardshelled fluid containers, fluid bags offer the advantage of a cheaper alternative while also producing a smaller waste volume after use. Hence, many hospitals rely heavily on the use of fluid bags instead of hard-shelled containers. Due to the inherent structural instability of fluid bags, the above mentioned problems of obstruction of fluid flow/occurrence of air bubbles may arise due to usage error during the insertion of such fluid bags into fluid warmers. Hence relatively experienced clinical personnel is required for the insertion of fluid bags into fluid warmers to ensure patient safety. This ultimately increases the cost of extracorporeal blood treatment.